New Year

Well, another New Year is knocking at the door and, naturally, I'm thinking about how I will spend those 365 fresh new days. What will I do this coming year that I failed to do last year? What will I do better than last year?

Seek out and nail an assignment for a magazine or two? I like that idea. Make more interesting photos? Sure. Travel? You betcha! Sample new wines? Sounds good to me! No one resolution, really. More an overiding theme of Epicurean pleasures. After all, what's more important than being happy? This is no selfish whim. This is important stuff. To paraphrase an old philosopher: There's no better way to make others happy than by being happy yourself.

Like it or not, difficult times happen. No need to go around creating them. In the mean time, pursue contentment.

Anyway, how about you? What's on tap for you in '08? Feel free to share in the comments.

Santa!

Heck...with just the right amount of holiday "cheer" even yours truly believes!

Merry Christmas!

Shadows.

In 'Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors' Carl Sagan describes a tremendous event: "An immense mass of gas and dust is swiftly collapsing under its own weight, spinning ever faster, transforming itself from a turbulent, chaotic cloud into what seems to be a distinct, orderly thin disk. Its exact center smolders a dull, cherry red. Watch from on high, above the disk, for a hundred million years and you will see the central mass grow whiter and more brilliant, until, after a couple abortive and incomplete attempts, it bursts into radiance, a sustained thermonuclear fire. The Sun is born." And roughly 5 billion years later this "sustained thermonuclear fire" shines in through my venetian blinded window and allows me to make a funky photograph!

Panning.

One of our earlier posts talked about being a little more selective about which photos to keep through more and better self-editing. We've also have talked about spicing up the collection of images you show others by using silhouettes. Both were about keeping your audience interested. In that same vein let's talk about panning. Capturing someone or something in motion. On the surface panning looks easy. Just follow along with your subject and click away. True to some extent but, as with everything, it does require some amount of practice. Matching the pace of your subject isn't always easy. (Direction changes, speed changes, unsteady hands.) Also, adding flash to the equation helps add a little dynamism. Here are two panned images. One with flash and one without. This first photo I captured down on the C&O Canal towpath. I noticed a rider coming along and set my camera to a slow shutter speed. As he approached I fixed a focus point on him and followed along all the while making sure that focus point never left his body. I clicked off about three or four shots before he passed. The trees make for a good background and are well blurred to convey actual motion.

This second shot is with the flash. In this case I asked John to walk past me a couple times while I photographed him. After a couple beers he is a most willing subject! Anyway, the background is underexposed by about one full stop. This helps make the subject (John) really stand out when the flash hits him. The flash also stops the action, which keeps John sharp yet the background remains blurred. Cool effect, I think!

Next time you have your camera out remember motion. Follow along as someone walks by. See a really nifty looking car coming up the road? Pan it! Watching a child's baseball game? No better opportunity to practice than when they are running down to first base. Try it out...and above all have fun!

Cheers.

Happy Chanukah!

More fun with existing light. Last night of Chanukah. All eight candles lit. Wait! some of you might say, there's actually nine! Why yes, you are correct! That candle in the middle would be the shammas. This is the "servant" candle. This is the candle that lights all the other candles. (See, I learned a little something after 12 years!) OK, digression over. Nine flaming candles make for pretty photos. Add a reflection from the window and an incandescent light or two behind you and a few Chanukah props on the table and soon you've got a nice warm holiday photograph. No special photography tricks on this one. I composed the shot, moved the items on table around til the photo felt "balanced," then let the camera's meter do the heavy lifting and just shot away. Ten frames at least! I liked this the best. Enjoy the holidays people! Shalom.

Silhouettes

A good way to spice up your photo slide show is to be sure there are one or two decent silhouettes included. Most people are not expecting them. They're expecting "the usual." It's your job--should you want your audience to remain interested--to occasionally provide the unusual. All you need for a good silhouette is backlight. Well, there's a little more to it than that, but backlight is essential. Everything you ever heard about keeping the light behind you--or just over your shoulder--forget it. In this case you want the light in front of you. Maybe off to the side just a bit, but basically in front of you and behind your subject. For those of you with more advanced cameras try metering the sky (not including the sun!) then shoot away. For the more point and shoot types the camera's light meter will most likely be able to read the scene properly and give you what you want. In other words simply make sure the sun is behind your subject then just point and shoot! Oh! It is also important to have a clean background so that your subject stands out. A cluttered background will just obscure everything. Try getting down low so the subject is against a clear blue sky or as in the case below get up high and use the reflection off water as background. Whatever the case, adding a silhouette or two to your vacation photos will help enrich the viewing experience.

So how did we light that portrait of Rachel?

As you saw in the "studio" shot, we were dealing with a pretty dull looking white wall and seriously ugly light. Weak incandescent bulbs in two places in the ceiling and a big window letting in far too much daylight. So first thing is we close the window shades and turn off the lights. Well, that is, after we completed our set up! Which consisted of just two flashes, a snoot, a reflector, a couple gels, and a house plant. (You get it now, don't you Rob?) Here's the first or main flash. Notice the amber gel on it. Now here it is again with the home made snoot in place. A snoot is simply a way to focus the light beam from wide to narrow. That way we can pick and choose what is lit... in this case Rachel's lovely visage. Here's our second or background flash. Notice the blue gel attached. Remember the blue background?

Remember also the dark patterns in the blue background? Well that's where the house plant comes in. You shoot the flash through the plants leaves, et voila! Cool, weird patterns on wall. And that's pretty much it! Except I sort of lied about only two flashes in use. There was actually a third. Here it is. The flash atop the camera put off just enough light to trigger the two other flashes, but not enough to add any light on our model. And here's the shot one more time:

Making the best of the situation.

OK... here's our "studio."

Ugh! A bit of a challenge, yes? Can we make a decent portrait in this setting?

Let's see...

I think we can!

Exactly how we did it is something I will discuss in a future post. For now, take heart knowing that a dull setting doesn't necessarily translate into a dull photograph.

Taking advantage of all available light.

Photography is about light. And there is great light all around.

For most of his career National Geographic photographer Sam Abell (look him up) never used a flash. He used the existing light in creative and unique ways. He really saw light.

Whenever possible I try to work creatively with existing light. Here's a recent portrait I did of my niece Jodi.

(She's doing her best impression of a scary zombie in her Grandpa's attic!) Anyway, what you'll notice is two different light sources. One slightly behind her on her right (my left) and one almost directly in front of her.

The light behind her is overcast daylight from a garret window and it acts as a sort of hairlight, creates a nice hi-light and helps separate her from the background. The light in front of her is from a window as well but there is a big tree with yellow leaves out this window and they act as a reflector, casting that nice warm glow on her face. I also positioned her in such a way that the window acts as a catchlight in her eyes (portraits without a catchlight tend to look lifeless). Lastly, she is turned ever so slightly so there is a little shadow on her face, this adds depth.

Of course, this exact look could be reproduce with several strobes and some gels in a studio, but lighting opportunities not dissimilar to this are all around. Just gotta look for them!

Give it a go.

That guy's upped his game, now up yours!

Tomorrow you are going to be a better photographer. Whether you are fairly advanced, simply a weekend hobbyist or just happen to have a camera you break out once or twice a year for birthdays and holidays, after you read this (and, importantly, put it to practice) your game will improve. You don't need to take a class or attend a workshop. You don't need to buy a new camera or lens. You don't need to learn a brand new photographic technique. It's very simple. Ready? Here it is: Edit! That's right. Cut down the number of photos you show people. Some of them you can keep for yourself, most of them can be deleted. Yes, deleted! Get rid of them. People blinking, out of focus, blurred, hand shake. All these can be jettisoned. I know it's not easy for some to do this but get in the habit anyway. You'll save room on your computer hard drive and those who look at your pics will genuinely appreciate it. Also, we humans need variety. So, sending out 25 shots of junior making his first poopy on the potty is excessive to say the least. Pick one (two tops) and get rid of the rest. (Or save them on a CD so you can use them to embarrass him on his first Prom date!) If you take a weekend holiday down at the shore and you return with 100 photos in your camera, take that extra half hour or so to really go through them all and edit. Once you get it down to a manageable level go one step further before sending them to friends and family and get it down to 10 really good ones. 10 different photos. That's it. Do this and over night people will think you've seriously upped your game. We'll get into more fun ways of improving your photography in the coming days, but for now just get serious about editing. Til then, Cheers.